Whether creating his own work or teaching others, art is Nat Bard’s ’96 life. “I want to develop ways to interest more people with art,” Bard says.

Bard is program director for Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord, Mass. The Emerson Umbrella Center offers arts education to residents of Concord and its surrounding communities, and also provides an environment in which working artists can develop and share their creativity. Bard teaches art classes to children.

From drawing and painting to mixed media, he says he introduces children to art in a way that is not scary. Using pens, pencils, paint, as well as a “fun system of charts and dice,” he teaches the children to create moving art pieces, pop-up books and illustrated stories. “I like to think that this education will make art more accessible in the future.”

Bard emphasizes that people are the most enjoyable aspect of his job. “There’s a lot to learn from them,” he says.

At Emerson, Bard paints, and makes prints and books. While studying at the Museum School of Fine Arts for his MFA, Bard illustrated his own books and created movable paintings. Currently, he is working on a series of repeated images instead of trying to create several separate pieces. “I’m trying to focus on one image and treat it differently with each piece.” It’s a lot of fun, he says, and a good way to experiment because the more you make of the same image, the more you can change and play with without worrying about the end result.

However, one of the challenges of his job, he says, is dealing with the assumptions that people have about art. Most people feel intimidated by art, he says. “The field has such an impenetrable fog surrounding it that people can’t get in, and they feel left out by it.”
Artists have perpetrated the perception by acting as mystics and magicians for so long that people cannot confidently see artistic characteristics without feeling judged.

As for the future, Bard says he would prefer to work on his own rather than have a career in management or technology. Most importantly though, he says he wants to influence people with his artwork. But, along with producing art, he says he would also like to keep teaching. “Art making is a way of talking about what is thought.”

For students interested in art at Albright, Bard says, “Each and every professor is a resource and there is always something to be learned, even if their expertise does not match artistic interests.”

— Jennifer M. Hawriluk ’01